Movie Review: Being John Malkovich

 Movie Number 23 of 2024

The Movie: Being John Malkovich  (25th anniversary screening)

The Cinema: The Deckchair Cinema, Darwin

Stars: 4.5

Darwin provided me with the best birthday present, that being the Anniversary screening of Being John Malkovich. I have loved that film for 25 years. I love Charlie Kaufman. I love John Cusack. I love Cameron Diaz playing completely against type. And I love the absurdity of it all. 

I managed to corral a couple of my workmates to come along too, all of whom had not seen this little gem of cinematic absurdity. There was African food being served at the cinema, it was a warm and balmy night, a beer ticket was given to us on the way in - the cinema, aware that there was a loud, noisy event taking place on the lawns at the adjacent Parliament House, had half-price tickets and the drink voucher to smooth over the noise factor. As it happens, the noise wasn't intrusive. 

For me, watching a movie on the big screen from a deck chair, as a rudely beautiful sunset occurs just behind the screen, with beer, and bats flying into the trees, and geckos running across the screen, and a full moon coming up behind you, on a balmy Darwin night, is just about the most perfect way to watch a film. 

Being John Malkovich hasn't changed in those 25 years, but it is still very funny. As cut classics go, you don't get much better. I'd forgotten how gorgeous Catherine Keener was in her younger days. John Cusack is perfect as the hapless Craig, a puppeteer who begins a day job in a strange company doing the filing, when he finds a portal into the mind of John Malkovich. Cameron Diaz's performance as Lottie, Craig's long-suffering animal loving wife is pure joy. It also takes about half the film to work out who she is, so out of type is this role. Oh, and Malkovich is Malkovich - a man stuck in a very strange place. 

Malkovich. 

25 years on, this is still fresh and funny. Charlie Kaufman, who wrote the film, is a cinematic god. Spike Jonze's direction is sound. I still find it hard to believe that he also directed the Jackass movies. 

As I said, the Gods lined things up for me. A favourite film. A favourite cinema experience. A full moon. A feed of Chinese (because I didn't feel like African - was in the mood for sweet and sour pork, which I bought on the way down. 

I feel very blessed. 

And three out of four of my colleagues loved their first viewing of this little gem. 

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